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Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010
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Strategic Context
Iran Rocket Launch Opens Can of Worms in Space Race with West
Adam Gabbatt
Iran has launched a research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space – showing that the country can defeat the west in the battle of technology and that it will soon send its own astronauts, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saidtoday. Western powers fear the technology used by Iran's space programme to launch satellites and research capsules could also be used to build long-range intercontinental missiles. A US defence expert said the launch underlined the closeness of Iran's space and military programmes.
(The Guardian)
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Iranian FM says any threat against Turkey considered threat against Iran
Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday that a threat against Turkey would amount to a threat against Iran and vice versa, Anadolu Agency reported. Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Motaki held a press conference after holding a meeting in Ankara.
(Trend News)
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Radical Yemeni-American Cleric Acknowledges Ties with Christmas Day Bomber Abdulmutallab, Expresses Support for Christmas Day Plot
In an interview for the Al-Jazeera website, the radical Yemeni-American cleric 'Anwar Al-'Awlaki acknowledged his ties with the would-be Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab. Al-'Awlaki calls Abdulmutallab "one of my students" and expressed support for his actions, laying out his reasons for justifying attacks on American civilians – though he said that he prefers attacks on military targets, and denied that he had given a fatwa authorizing the Christmas Day plot.
(MEMRI)
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Regional Affairs
Barred Iraq Candidates Allowed to Stand: Official
Around 500 candidates barred from Iraq's March 7 general election for alleged links to executed dictator Saddam Hussein will be allowed to stand, an electoral official said. Politicians from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, which dominated Saddam's regime, were enraged over the original disqualifications and both Washington and the United Nations had voiced concern they might undermine the election's credibility.
(AFP)
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Clinton, Khalifa Affirm Gulf Missile Systems "for Defense Purposes"
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Bahraini Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa affirmed late on Wednesday that the US missile systems deployed in the Gulf are only for defense capabilities against the growing Iranian threat. "We will continue to work with Bahrain to ensure that they have the defense capabilities that they need. And we highly appreciate the hosting of the Navy, which, of course, is one symbol of America's commitment to our allies and friends in the Gulf," said Clinton after her meeting with Khalifa in Washington.
(Kuwait News Agency)
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Iran Questioned over British Protester on Espionage and Alcohol Trial
Peter Walker and Robert Tait
The Foreign Office said tonight it was urgently seeking information from Iran's government after reports that a British national was among opposition supporters on trial for taking part in anti-government street protests last year. A 24-year-old woman with dual British and Iranian nationality is one of 16 people being tried in Tehran over the most serious unrest since the disputed election in June returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, reports from Iran said.
(The Guardian)
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Commentary
Iran's Leaders Are Worried about History's Forward March
Said Amir Arjomand
The Iranian regime is now critically dependent on decisions made by one man, the supreme leader, Khamenei. For that reason, it is demonstrating a degree of fragility that is comparable to the shah’s regime in the latter part of the 1970s.
(Daily Star - Lebanon)
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Qatar Responds to Iran
Abdullah Iskandar
The double-standard nature of the overt Iranian rhetoric vis-à-vis the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries becomes clear. On the one hand, Tehran is keen on exchanging visits with the capitals of these countries. Statements that stress positive relations with them increase, stressing that its goal is to boost stability and security in the Gulf and to exchange interests with its countries. On the other hand, Tehran threatens these countries over their relations with the United States, and cautions them against any American steps targeting Iran, to the extent of implying that it can consider the Gulf States to be an arena for its military operations in case the United States and Israel attack the Iranian territories.
(Dar Al Hayat)
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Iran…Sweet Talk!
Tariq Alhomayed
It is good that Iran is experiencing this tension, and perhaps the wise in Iran will learn a lesson from this, and appreciate things as they are, before it is too late and their country and the entire region becomes engaged in pointless war and destruction. Iran must know this, and must be informed of this, for anything else is merely sweet talk.
(Asharq Alawsat)
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MESI Issue of the Week
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The Palestinians' Unilateral "Kosovo Strategy": Implications for the PA and Israel
Dan Diker
03/02/2010
Mahmoud Abbas' new precondition that the international community recognize the 1967 lines in the West Bank as the new Palestinian border bolsters the assessment that the Palestinians have largely abandoned a negotiated settlement and instead are actively pursuing a unilateral approach to statehood. Senior Palestinian officials note that Palestinian unilateralism is modeled after Kosovo's February 2008 unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia. European and U.S. support for Kosovo's unilateral declaration has led the Palestinian leadership to determine that geopolitical conditions are ripe to seek international endorsement of its unilateral statehood bid, despite the fact that leading international jurists have suggested that the cases of Kosovo and the Palestinian Authority are historically and legally different. The Palestinians are legally bound to negotiate a bilateral solution with Israel. Unilateral Palestinian threats to declare statehood have been rebuffed thus far by the European powers and the United States. The Palestinian "Kosovo strategy" includes a campaign of delegitimization of Israel, seeking to isolate Israel as a pariah state, while driving a wedge between Israel and the United States. The unilateral Palestinian bid for sovereignty will also likely turn the Palestinians into the leading petitioner against the State of Israel at the International Criminal Court. Although the PA is not a state and therefore should have no legal standing before the court, the petition it submitted to the court after the Gaza war was not rejected by the ICC. Finally, a unilateral Palestinian quest for the 1947 lines may well continue even if the 1967 lines are endorsed by the United Nations. The PLO's 1988 declaration of independence was based on UN General Assembly Resolution 181, which recognizes the 1947 partition plan for Palestine, not the 1967 lines, as the basis for the borders of Israel and an Arab state.
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Key Articles
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Fundamental Documents
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UK Policy Statements
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In Quotes
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